What to do while you’re waiting

A couple weekends ago, I flew to Atlanta with my baby to visit family. It was a whirlwind of hugs and food, late nights dancing and long, long lines. The kind with X-ray machines and barefoot waiting. Everyone will help a mama and her baby, though; that was nice.

The short trip was full of waiting moments, but I suppose that’s just like the rest of life. I’m always on the road between one place or the other. In fact, I can’t think of a place or time when I’m not, when we aren’t between roles, dreams or goals.

The only problem is, I normally approach the next thing with dread or anticipation. And those over-powering emotions take me right out of now and into a future that hasn’t even happened yet.

All of life is waiting, between one monumental moment and another. When we are young, we are in school, waiting for graduation. Then college, waiting for a degree, waiting to do what we really came here for.

At whatever point we start a job or career, we are waiting to be noticed, waiting for promotion, for a better opportunity.

We are waiting in our relationships too. Waiting for a good friend, or a life partner. Waiting for children.

When they come, we wait for them to grow, to mature. We wait and wait for the next season. But what is Now? Is Now only In-Between something else? Or is Now worthy of being enjoyed and lived in fully? (Rhetorical question with an obvious answer, I think.)

Here’s the part we don’t realize: when we finally get the job or relationship we’ve been waiting for, we celebrate, but only for a moment.

When you walk across the stage at graduation, when you walk down the aisle to get married, when you get the call that you were accepted for the job, or the small business loan, you rejoice. Your dream is coming true. But all that work and that moment, the realization of the dream means more work, and inevitably, more waiting.

Crazy, isn’t it?

We are never in the Now because we think our life is composed of dream moments and everything in between is just waiting. But that’s not true.

The life in between your dreams is Your Life. It’s your Now, and it’s where you live your calling. It’s not empty space. It’s supposed to full, full of purpose and passion.

But that will never happen on accident. The in-between life each of us inhabit is only full when we know our calling. When we can say with confidence, “This is why I am here. This is what makes me come alive.”

Your answer to This is your calling. The theme that ties together all the waitings and the in-betweens. It’s the thing you do because it’s who you are.

Most of us have it confused. We think our dreams are our calling. We think we are called to parent or called to be a business leader. Called to coach the local soccer team, or perhaps even called to be a missionary.

But those aren’t callings as much as they are dreams or goals. They are roles we play for a season. They are good, essential even.

But our calling is what we can live out in ANY role, any time, anywhere.

Knowing our calling liberates us to truly be in the moment, no longer a slave to the hope that The Next Thing will be the thing that helps me find myself, the thing that will make me happy.

Instead of relying on the right job or person to come along to allow you to finally live, knowing your calling allows you to live Now, with energy, passion and focus, no matter where you are or what role you play. No matter how close you are to your dreams.

Your calling isn’t intended to be a mystery. God wants you to know it and live it well. You don’t have to let your yet-unfulfilled dreams sink the ship of your soul. You don’t have to waste away waiting. You can live with intention and purpose, with both feet firmly planted in your Now Life, when you know your calling.

I wrote Called To Come Alive so you could figure out your calling. This eBook is a simple, one-hour, interactive adventure that will help you discover your unique calling and live it out in the roles you are in now. No waiting on the perfect job or the right relationship. (Neither exist anyway.)

Now don’t get me wrong: I hope you will hang on with hope and faith to the dreams in your heart. I hope you won’t give up on the climaxes in your story. You were made for those.

But when you know and live your calling every day along the path to your dreams, you can keep your soul alive in the in between.

And that’s what I want most for you: a life that is full of purpose every day and a soul that’s alive, a force for good.

So what you should you do while you’re waiting? You should live. You will never arrive. You will never be there, wherever there is. You will bounce from one dream to the next, from one incredible moment to the next. And you’re liable before waiting for things between those moments.

So unless you learn to dive in and live in the moments between your dreams, you never really will. You’ll always be waiting to live.